‘Vampire Diaries’ Season Finale: Lives Will Never Be The Same

"As I Lay Dying" - Nina Dobrev and Ian Somerhalder in The Vampire Diaries Season Finale (The CW)

It’s been a season of doppelgangers, curses and sacrifices on “The Vampire Diaries.” On May 12th, the show that has brought us two sets of sexy vampire brothers, tormented werewolves, tortured romance, and Damon’s one-liners will air its second season finale. It’s going to be tough to top such shocking moments as Klaus possessing Alaric and Damon forcing Elena to drink his blood. But “Vampire Diaries” always manage to raise the bar. Though the producers won’t reveal many spoilers, it’s a safe bet that the finale will leave viewers in shock. Executive producer Julie Plec discussed the finale, her favorite moments from this season and what Katherine has in common with Heather Locklear.

Take us inside your approach to the finale and what you wanted to accomplish. What we really wanted to accomplish this season was an emotional finale. Our characters are going through a lot this season. There’s a lot of characters throughout that haven’t survived and more who won’t survive before the season’s over. There’s a lot of relationships that have very big moves. Damon expresses his love for Elena in the middle of the season. By the end of the season, Stefan and Elena are very much at odds with each other over their disagreement about how to handle trying to win this fight [against Klaus]. We really wanted to take our audience on a journey from beginning to end where Damon and Stefan in the beginning of the season say, “We won’t let a girl come between us.” At the end of the season, we’ll see in the finale that’s exactly what happened. How are they going to get right with each other and how is Damon going to get right with the mistakes he’s made? So the emotional fallout of what happens with the sacrifice ritual, there’s a lot for our characters to recover from. We wanted to give the audience a true ending since the journey of the season was the journey of the sun and the moon curse, the journey of Klaus, the journey of Elena being the key ingredient of the sacrifice ritual. We really wanted to explore the consequences of everything that happened and use this as a way to set the stage for what could happen next season, which is a lot of shifts for our heroes whose lives are frankly never going to be the same after the season finale.

Looking back, is there anything that you wanted to do this season but couldn’t? No, actually. Weirdly enough, we were able to do everything that we set out to do this season. There were some little tiny things, like if an actor wasn’t available, but we set our course at the beginning and played it through all the way to the end.

What should fans look forward to next season? If you haven’t started writing season three yet, what would your dream season be? That’s a tough one. I can’t really say much without giving away a lot. I think that what will [happen at the end] in season two is that all these characters that we all love will have life changing events and it’s really going to shake up the dynamics of the relationships and the friendships. Things are going to be different. That’s what’s exciting to me. We’re still telling these wonderful stories with these wonderful people, but you’re never going to feel that we’re just telling the same story all over again.

What, in your opinion, were the high points of season two? Starting of course with Katherine who we anticipated we would use very sparingly for many reasons because we didn’t want her to outstay her welcome with Nina playing both roles. She was such a delicious villain, the Heather Locklear of “Melrose Place,” this awesome, sexy villain who really shook up everyone’s world. Watching her journey has been so great and watching Nina Dobrev play her has been so amazing. We’re really proud of how that worked out. Of course, turning Caroline into a vampire…When the series ends Kevin [Williamson] and I will still believe that’s the smartest decision we’ve ever made. Candice Accola shined in that role and grew into herself as the character. I think the other thing is the casting of Daniel Gillies as Elijah, which is a character that just kind of could have been around for an episode or two but because he was so good and such a special representation of the character, the character itself took on a life of his own.

What was your favorite episode or scene from this season? “Klaus” where we see Klaus back in the day and really understand his relationship with Elijah, why they hate each other and why Klaus is so intent on breaking the curse is, without a doubt, one of my favorite episodes of the series so far. I think my favorite line would have to be Caroline’s line, “Hi Mom,” after she kicks ass and takes names in the Lockwood cellar, outing herself to her mother.